COUNTDOWN TO EUROVISION : Sweden

In just under a month from now, entrants from across Europe will descend on the Azerbaijani capital Baku to take part in the first semi final of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest. As always, two semi finals are scheduled, each containing 18 performers who’ll be battling it out for a place in the 2012 Grand Final on Saturday May 26, where waiting for them will be the ‘big five’ of the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy, along with the host nation Azerbaijan. Here at auspOp, we’re continuing the Countdown To Eurovision will a daily look at one of the competitor’s songs.

LOREEN : Euphoria

We all know the Swedes give good pop, so we’re rather excited to learn that ‘Euphoria’, the Swedish entry from 28 year old songstress Loreen, is already available on our local iTunes store. Loreen rocketed to fame in Sweden (as Lorén Talhaoui) as part of the 2004 edition of Sweden’s ‘Idol’ competition after receiving a wild card entry from the judges. She eventually finished fourth, releasing a single shortly thereafter. Following a hiatus from the industry, Loreen competed in the Melodifestivalen in an attempt to qualify for Eurovision last year but was unsuccessful, but this year it’s on like Donkey Kong and she’ll perform for her country as part of the second semi final on Thursday May 24. We reckon this will be one of the favourites to take out the competition, simply because it’s bang on trend. It’s already charting in the top ten throughout several European countries and bagged the No.1 spot in Sweden last month.www.eurovision.tv